![[BIRD HUNTING - GAME BOOK] HOFFMAN, SAMUEL V. Day Book of Samuel Hoffman 1836 to 1843 [spine title].](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/208/1379208.jpg?itok=UljuFD2Z)
Lot Details
Lot 33
[BIRD HUNTING - GAME BOOK] HOFFMAN, SAMUEL V. Day Book of Samuel Hoffman 1836 to 1843 [spine title].
New Jersey: 1836-1843. Original marbled boards, rebacked. 12 5/8 x 7 5/8 inches; unpaginated manuscript day book entries. Rebacked with new spine, generally rubbed and worn, scattered foxing.
Relating woodcock, snipe, and rail shooting in New Jersey during the period 1836 to 1843. With 75 entries, averaging 18 annually before dwindling to two entries for 1843. Hoffman was a New York financier and coal trader who took up a late-in-life career as a farmer in New Jersey. These pages describe hunting trips around New Brunswick, Chatham, Bound Brook, Teaneck, West Chester, and Hackensack (as well as a few trips to Staten Island, Newburgh, and Condits, NY), including game (woodcock, rail, snipe, and quail, with the occasional duck, bittern, or rabbit), with tallies of shots, kills, and unretrieved birds; travel details, companions, performance of the dogs, etc.
A sample entry: "Shooting. / 12 [November 1839] Went in the afternoon in company with Mr. Robbins to shoot. Stopped at Camptown and shot 5 quail. Went same evening to Chatham. Shot next day and bagged 25 birds; viz., 2 Partridges, 11 cock, 12 quail. Of the 30 I got 16. This time shot very well. Had my new dog called Brant. As far as I could judge from one trial he pleased me very much; think he is an uncommonly good dog, beautiful in action and very obedient. The day uncommonly pleasant, rather too warm. Twice this day killed 2 quail with one barrel, rather unusual. Up to this time I have bagged this summer & fall Partridge, Wood cock, quail & a very few snipe, also rail, in all 181 [birds]."
C Estate of Arnold 'Jake' Johnson
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